Microsoft Copilot (formerly Bing Chat Enterprise)

Contents

Introduction

Microsoft Copilot (formerly Bing Chat Enterprise) is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool with a chat-based interface. You can use everyday language to ask – or ‘prompt’ – it to create text or image content.

Copilot is partly powered by the same AI models used in Chat GPT, but it has added assurances around data protection. To learn more, please see:

Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 (microsoft.com)

For a general introduction to AI tools, please see:

Understanding Artificial Intelligence Tools – The Teaching Knowledge Base (coventry.domains)

For guidance around appropriate and inappropriate use of AI, please see:

Artificial Intelligence – Staff Guidance – The Teaching Knowledge Base (coventry.domains)

Can I use it?

Staff members and students can access the Enterprise version of Microsoft Copilot using your Coventry University account. It’s possible to use the free version without logging in, but this has some limitations.

There are a few different ways to access this tool:

Method 1: Use the office.com Copilot web app

In your web browser, go to https://copilot.cloud.microsoft/
Sign in using your normal Coventry email and password.
You should see a new Copilot window open. Your profile icon should be at the top right, and slightly below and to the left a shield icon. If you select the shield, it should say ‘Microsoft Enterprise and compliance standards apply to this chat’.

Method 2: Use the Copilot ‘app’ in Microsoft Teams

This method is useful if you want to have Copilot easily available within Microsoft Teams. Watch the video below, or follow the written instructions.

📹 Video – How to add Copilot to Microsoft Teams

Open Microsoft Teams.
Select ‘Apps’ in the left-hand menu.
Search for ‘Copilot’ and select the Copilot tile.
Select ‘Add’. Copilot should now appear as an icon in the left-hand menu.

Accessibility

Here are some of Copilot’s accessibility features:

It can be navigated by keyboard.
It supports voice input and text-to-speech output.

What can I do with it?

You can use Copilot to assist you in a wide range of tasks. There is a list of common uses below, along with some example prompts that you can use to generate ideas. You can also learn a lot about Copilot’s capabilities just by asking it to do something and seeing what happens.

A word of caution

Before you get started, please note that:

In general, it’s better to see the content that Copilot produces as a starting point that you can build on, rather than the final product.
AI can hallucinate (generate false information) and create biased content, so you should always review its output carefully before using it.

Tips

If the quality of the output from Copilot seems poor, try:

telling Copilot to change the bits you aren’t happy with.
experiment with rewording your prompt.
add examples or models of what you want.

Common uses

Here are some common tasks you can use Copilot for, along with example prompts (instructions for Copilot). These prompts are just to help you start exploring different uses – they aren’t necessarily ‘good’. You can copy and paste the prompts into Copilot to see how it works. Try them in different modes and compare the results.

Rewrite or change the format of text: Rewrite the text I paste below to make it more concise / easier to understand / formal / put it into bullet points.
Provide Excel formulas: I have a spreadsheet with student usernames in the first column. I want to change the usernames into email addresses by appending the suffix @coventry.ac.uk. Give me an Excel formula that will do this, and explain how to use it step-by-step in simple language.
Output a table that you can download as an Excel file: Look at the spreadsheet that I’ve attached. Remove all the blank rows and create a new table with all the data.
Help you use complicated software: How can I remove an object from a photo using Photoshop? I haven’t used this software much so explain step-by-step in simple language.
Explain a complicated concept: Explain string theory in a simple, concise paragraph using a baking metaphor.
Proofread text: Proofread the following text. Don’t just look at grammar and spelling, check for meaning as well: ‘The mat sat on teh cat’.
Generate or correct code: Help me fix this Python code: True = “This code doesn’t work”
Create websites: Give me the HTML and CSS for a landing page for my website that follows the ‘holy grail’ format. Comment on each section so I understand what the code does.
Generate text such as an email or a lesson plan: Write a lesson plan on the topic “An introduction to generative AI” for a class of 30 undergraduate students.
Brainstorm ideas for something so you aren’t starting from a blank page: Give me ten ideas for a warmer to use in a lesson about Generative AI.
Create a short summary of a long text: Summarise the article on this page: https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/working-with-ai-two-paths-to-prompting
Generate images using the DALL.E 3 model from Open AI: Make a photo-real image of a cat wearing a graduation cap.
Ask for alternative text for an image you paste in (NB currently this only works with the copilot.microsoft.com version): Write a description of the image that I can use as alternative text.
Role-play a specific scenario: I want to practise my patient assessment skills. Role-play as a patient who has made an appointment about recurring headaches. I’ll role-play as the nurse.
Ask it to quiz you on a topic to check your understanding: I’ve just started to learn about how generative AI could be used in education. Ask me some questions to help me consolidate my knowledge, and give me feedback on my answers.
Create a game to help review key concepts: Create a text-based adventure game set in a fantasy world where you ask me multiple-choice questions about learning theory that I must answer correctly to progress.
Break down a large task or project into subtasks: I need to write an article for my University’s Teaching Knowledge Base about Generative AI but I don’t know where to start. Please break this down into several subtasks.

Prompt databases for education

The Education Technology team have made a ‘cookbook of Copilot recipes’ – essentially, step-by-step instructions for how to use Copilot to perform different tasks:

Copilot Cookbook (coventry.domains) (shortlink bit.ly/copilot-cookbook)

Microsoft has created a repository of prompts to help educators explore the potential of Copilot. For example, there are prompts to generate lesson plans, explainers and quizzes. You will need to tweak them slightly to make them relevant to your context. For best results, use them in Copilot’s ‘Precise’ mode.

Prompts for education (github.com)

Many of the prompts on Microsoft’s database above were written by Lilach Mollick (Director of Pedagogy at Wharton Interactive) and Ethan Mollick (Associate Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania). They have their own prompt library with ‘Instructor Aids’ and ‘Students Exercises’:

Prompt Library (moreusefulthings.com)

The following link is to a free ebook with 101 ideas for using AI, crowdsourced from Higher Education practitioners from around the world:

OA Book: 101 Creative Ideas to Use AI in Education – #creativeHE (wordpress.com)

Copilot Agents

Microsoft have recently added ‘Agents’ to Copilot. These are custom chat bots that you can set up with your own instructions. To learn more, see Copilot Agents – Copilot Cookbook (coventry.domains). There is also a recording of a workshop on Copilot Agents in the ‘Training’ section.

Training

A Beginner’s Guide to Generative AI (media.coventry.ac.uk) – video recording of a training session by the Ed Tech team.

Copilot: Using AI for teaching and learning (media.coventry.ac.uk) – video recording of a training session by the Ed Tech team. Select ‘Related media’ to download the associated presentation.

Copilot Agents: Create your own AI chatbot! (media.coventry.ac.uk) – video recording on a training session by the Ed Tech team. Select ‘Related media’ to download the associated presentation.

Using Copilot to create interactive learning resources (media.coventry.ac.uk) – video recording of a training session by the Ed Tech team.

AI tools and the impact on Higher Education – The Teaching Knowledge Base (coventry.domains)

AI & Academic Misconduct – The Teaching Knowledge Base (coventry.domains)

Artificial Intelligence – Staff Guidance – The Teaching Knowledge Base (coventry.domains)